Looking for the A in the PPACA

As you know by now almost a year ago the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was signed into law. Whether you are for the law, against the law, Democrat or a Republican is not relevant here. What is relevant is this law is NOT affordable. Not for the policyholder, not for the tax payer and not for the country.

I have been an insurance broker for almost ten years and have been in the industry for 15 years and I have never seen rate increases like I have seen in the last twelve months. I have group health plans that had increases of over 35% this year. I have individual plans, depending on the carrier from as low as 25% to as much as 40%. Does that seem affordable?

According to Americans for Tax Reform, there are at least two dozen new or higher taxes in the health care law. Some of my favorites are

Now, here is the part that might be the scariest. I have a client who I wrote on a Health Savings Account plan (H.S.A). His daughter has a pre-existing condition. The standard rate on the plan was $479. Prior to the PPACA, the daughter would have been denied, and probably referred to the state high risk pool. As far as the bill goes it seems like a good idea not to deny children health insurance right?? The law as far as I can tell has no maximum on what you can rate a policy for the condition so the carriers do what they can to keep themselves profitable. I have seen substantial increases on this part of the law. This client in particular after the plan came back from underwriting was $1916.88. That is a 400% rate increase ( and I have seen higher).

This bill seems to try to address everything except the affordable part. I ask our President, our Congress, and my fellow Americans, what happened to the A in the PPACA?

Thanks for reading.

Eric Wilson is the President of I Sell Health, Inc. A Chicago based company. He can be reached toll free at 888-448-5370 or online at www.isellhealth.com